Nicole Desirée Ortegón

Education

Loyola University Chicago

• Ph.D., Cultural and Educational Policy Studies, May 2017

Harvard Graduate School of Education

• Ed.M., Technology in Education, June 2005

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• B.A., Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dec 2003

• Anthropology Major, English Minor

• Summa Cum Laude and Highest Distinction in Anthropology

Faculty Positions

Other Research and Professional Experience

Instructional Coach, Pathways to Excellence for Teachers, Center for Literacy

Concordia University Chicago Aug 2017-Oct 2018

• Provided onsite, individualized instructional coaching for PreK-8 teachers

• Co-planned and co-led professional development sessions

• Promoted innovative pedagogical polices and practices to meet the social and educational needs of all students

• Worked with teachers, administrators, and other partners to develop a collaboratively articulated plan of study for grades PreK-8

Supervisor, Center for Literacy

Concordia University Chicago June 2017-July 2017

• Coordinated the 8 to 9 FOCUS (Freshmen Orientation Curriculum for Unlimited Success) program with Center Director and Oak Park River Forest High School personnel

• Served as liaison between program happenings and Center Director

• Delivered and revised curriculum with the assistance of Center Director and Concordia University Chicago (CUC) mentors

• Managed CUC mentors

• Collected and managed data

Study Abroad Diversity Strategy Intern, Office for International Programs (OIP)

Loyola University Chicago Sep 2013-June 2016

• Created, developed, and implemented strategies to diversify the study abroad population, working to increase the number of students from populations traditionally underrepresented in study abroad programs

• Directed student, staff, and faculty outreach, building and maintaining partnerships across the university and greater community

• Co-led the Study Abroad Diversity Committee

• Performed quantitative and qualitative data analysis, communicating findings through oral presentations and written reports

• Assisted in grant writing

• Assisted in marketing

• Assisted in resource development, curriculum integration, and other special projects

Graduate Research Assistant, The Graduate School

Loyola University Chicago July 2012-July 2013

• Served as the Loyola Graduate Research Assistant on the Council of Graduate Schools' Doctoral Initiative on Minority Attrition and Completion project

• Compiled nearly twenty years of student data gathered across electronic databases and print records

• Recruited students to participate in surveys and focus groups

• Organized focus groups and coordinated site visits

• Gained knowledge of survey platforms such as SurveyMonkey and Opinio

• Trained in research compliance

Graduate Assistant

Loyola University Chicago Aug 2008-May 2010

• Assisted professor with research

• Proofread, edited, and provided feedback with regard to professor's writings

Education Outreach Specialist

Broader Urban Involvement and Leadership Development (BUILD, Inc.) Oct 2006-Aug 2007

• Personally assisted over 400 at-risk youth in realizing their personal, academic, and professional potential

• Recruited over 200 youth for the U.S. Department of Education's Talent Search TRIO Program

• Familiarized inner-city high school students with a wide range of educational and career opportunities through individual counseling, postsecondary workshops, and campus tours and developing partnerships with the Chicago Public Schools

• Developed curriculum for postsecondary planning

• Co-taught the counseling component of the Step Up program designed to facilitate students' transition to high school

• Served as the Scholarship Coordinator and on the Infrastructure and Information Technology Planning Committee

International Market Researcher and International Account Manager

McMaster-Carr Management Development Program Aug 2005-June 2006

• Researched local and global marketing events and their impact on industry and the economy

• Conducted consumer research to determine consumer marketing potential and appropriate marketing strategy

• Developed strong leadership and problem solving abilities through effective project management

• Achieved proficiency in business Spanish

Graduate Research Assistant, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Multi-User Virtual Environment Experiential Simulator (MUVEES) Sep 2004-June 2005

• Developed and evaluated curriculum for the River City MUVEES, an inquiry-centered and interactive educational technology for teaching and learning middle-school science curriculum

• Observed the use of MUVEES in urban middle-school classrooms and interviewed middle-school students, exploring their relationship with science and learning

• Created an observation protocol for the River City MUVEES and conducted qualitative analysis of the project data

Exhibit Evaluation Intern for the Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination Exhibit

Museum of Science, Boston Sep 2004-Jan 2005

• Evaluated exhibit prototypes by observing visitor groups interact with exhibit components and conducting visitor interviews

• Developed evaluation instruments, compiled and analyzed data, and authored exhibit evaluation reports

• Recommended prototype modifications based on data analysis and re-evaluated modified prototypes

Ethnographer and Co-author, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Ethnography of the Brown v. Board of Education Jubilee Commemoration (EBC)
Oct 2003-May 2004/07

• Co-authored the Ethnographic Report on the Jubilee Commemoration of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court Decision, University of Illinois

• Analyzed the structure, themes, and motifs of the University of Illinois' yearlong commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board

• Conducted observations and interviews and authored and synthesized field notes

Undergraduate Research Intern, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Ethnography of the University Initiative (EUI) Jan 2003-May 2004

• Piloted the development of an online learning environment to aid students and faculty in learning ethnography

• Researched the role of online learning technologies in faculty-student and student-student interactions in university courses

• Co-presented lectures on the use of the Inquiry Page in undergraduate education

• Developed recommendations for implementing the Inquiry Page and iLabs technologies at the graduate level

Tutor of Anthropology

University of Illinois Office of Minority Student Affairs (OMSA) Oct 2002-Dec 2003

• Tutored undergraduate students in Biological, Cultural, and Linguistic Anthropology

• Assisted students in learning efficient study methods, essay writing and test preparation techniques, and how to effectively utilize learning resources and become self-motivated learners

International Experience

Teacher Training Experience

• Cuba, Oct 2010

• Cuba, Oct-Nov 2011

Undertook Coursework in the Historical Foundations of Western Education and Social Policy in Rome, Italy

• Loyola University Chicago

• Graduate Study July 2009

Undertook Coursework in Biological Anthropology in La Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua

• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Field Research June 2002-July 2002

• • Researched the foraging strategies and behaviors of New World Primate Species Alouatta palliata

  • Mastered field and laboratory techniques and data analysis in Biological Anthropology

Publications

• Ortegón, N. D. (2012). [Review of the book Raising Citizens in the Century of the Child: the United States and German Central Europe in Comparative Perspective]. European Education, 44(2), 93-96

• Sobe, N. W. and Ortegón, N. D. (2009). Scopic Systems, Pipes, Models and Transfers in the Global Circulation of Educational Knowledge and Practices. In T. Popkewitz and F. Rizvi (Eds.), Globalization and the Study of Education. Chicago: National Society for the Study of Education Yearbook, 108(2), 49-66

• Ortegón, N. D. (2009). [Review of the book Common Interests, Uncommon Goals: Histories of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies and its Members]. European Education, 41(2), 99-101

• Teachers College Columbia University Who's Who in Comparative and International Education Studies, Entry on Vandra Lea Masemann, June 2008

Conferences

• "An Historical Framework for Understanding Conceptualizations of Illness and Wellness in Relation to Parenting, Pedagogy, and Education Policy in the Context of COVID-19" presentation at The Association of Lutheran College Faculties (ALCF) 85th Annual Conference: Confronting the Brave, New World: Science, Politics, Culture & Society in 2021 in Austin, Texas, October 2021

• "Learning to See What's Already There: Possibilities for Inter-epistemological Understanding" presentation at Concordia University Chicago's Fall 2018 Brown Bag Series: Hidden Figures: Analyzing Gender in Symbolic and Material Spaces in Chicago, Illinois, November 2018

• "From Mental to Emotional Hygiene: The Influence of Emotional Intelligence on Somatic and Psychogenic Dimensions of Parenting and Schooling in the Late Twentieth to Early Twenty-first Century United States" paper presented at the International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE) 38: Education and the Body in Chicago, Illinois, August 2016

• "Diversifying Study Abroad" presentation at Loyola University Chicago's School of Education Seventeenth Annual Research Symposium: Community of Scholars in Chicago, Illinois, April 2015

• "Oh the Places You'll Go! Cultivating New Pathways to Study Abroad for a Diverse Student Body" presentation at 2015 NASPA Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education International Symposium in New Orleans, Louisiana, March 2015

• "Now I Know My EQCs: An Empathetic-based Approach to Parenting" paper presented at Loyola University Chicago's School of Education Fifteenth Annual Research Symposium: Community of Scholars in Chicago, Illinois, April 2013

• Poster presentation on the Use of Data-driven Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning, The National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) Fall Visit, Loyola University Chicago, October 2011

• "Toward the 'Better than Well' Individual and Society: Changing Measures of 'Illness' and 'Wellness' and their Influence on Children and Childhood" paper presented at the Society for the History of Children and Youth (SHCY) Biennial SHCY Conference in New York, New York, June 2011

• Co-presented on the "Emmet Project" at Loyola University Chicago's Community Engagement Forum in Chicago, Illinois, April 2011

• Co-presented on the "Loyola Cuba Project" at Loyola University Chicago's Community Engagement Forum in Chicago, Illinois, April 2011

• "Conceptualizations of Mental Illness: the Mental Hygiene Movement, Family, and Schooling in Late Nineteenth to Mid-twentieth Century United States and Canada" paper presented at the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) National Conference in Chicago, Illinois, March 2010

• "Equality of Opportunity: Education, Society, and Compensatory Education in Mexico" paper presented at the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) Northeast Regional Conference in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, October 2009

• "Teaching as a Profession During the 19th Century" paper presented at Loyola University Chicago's Lecture Series in Chicago, Illinois, November 2009

Guest Lectures

• Dissertation Research presented (across three guest lectures) in Professor Jamie A. Kowalczyk's undergraduate course on People and Society (General Education Core), Concordia University Chicago, Spring 2021

• "Teen Films as a Genre." Lecture presented in Andrew J. Roback's undergraduate and graduate course on Shakespeare in film, Illinois Institute of Technology, August 6, 2020

• "The Art of Image Manipulation." Lecture presented in Professor Andrew J. Roback's undergraduate and graduate course on document design, Illinois Institute of Technology, April 15, 2020

• "Teaching as a Profession During the 19th Century." Lecture presented in Professor Noah W. Sobe's undergraduate course on the history of American education, Loyola University Chicago, September 30, 2008, November 20, 2009, October 5, 2010, and in Professor Katherine L. Phillippo's graduate course on the sociology of teaching, Loyola University Chicago, October 26, 2010

• "Law and Policy in Chicano Education in the United States in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Segregation, Desegregation, and Integration." Lecture presented in Professor Noah W. Sobe's undergraduate course on the history of American education, Loyola University Chicago, November 10, 2009

• Co-presented lectures on the use of the Inquiry Page and the Ethnography of the University Initiative (EUI) in higher education curriculum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2003-2004

Distinctions

CLEF (Chicagoland Lutheran Educational Foundation)

• Teacher Dreams 2020 Grant Recipient

• Teacher Dreams 2019 Grant Recipient

Doctoral Fellowships

• Loyola University Chicago Advanced Doctoral Fellowship 2011-2012

• Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois Fellowship 2010-2011

Loyola University Chicago

• Ph.D. Comprehensive Examination in Cultural and Educational Policy Studies Passed with Distinction, Mar 2010

• Graduate Assistantship

• Teaching Assistantship

Harvard University

• Juda L. Schwartz Fellowship, 2005

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Summa Cum Laude

• Highest Distinction in Anthropology

• Patricia O'Brien Award for Best Undergraduate Research Paper in Anthropology

• Bronze Tablet

• President's Award Program

• Dean's List

Professional Associations

• Member, International Standing Conference for the History of Education (ISCHE), Mar 2016-Present

• Member, NASPA Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, Dec 2015-Present

• Member, Society for the History of Children and Youth (SHCY), Feb 2011-Present

• Member, Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), Aug 2007-Present

• Student Associate, Loyola University Chicago Center for Comparative Education (CCE), Aug 2007-May 2013

• Student Associate, Loyola University Chicago Comparative and International Education Graduate Student Association (CIEGSA), Aug 2007-May 2013

• Student Representative, Loyola University Chicago Council of Graduate School Programs, Sep 2012-May 2013

• Co-chair, Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) New Scholars Committee (NSC), Aug 2010-May 2011

• President, Loyola University Chicago Comparative and International Education Graduate Student Association (CIEGSA), Aug 2010-Aug 2011

• Vice President, Loyola University Chicago Comparative and International Education Graduate Student Association (CIEGSA), Aug 2009-Aug 2010

• Secretary, Loyola University Chicago Comparative and International Education Graduate Student Association (CIEGSA), Aug 2008-Aug 2009

• First-year Student Representative, Loyola University Chicago Comparative and International Education Graduate Student Association (CIEGSA), Aug 2007-Aug 2008

Certifications

• Mindful Practices Online SEL Certification (June 2020)